Books by Shane Joseph

Fake News!!! Will Smallwood, a writer suffering from the dreaded "block" and from troubling childhood dreams, is sucked into a living nightmare when he becomes the fall guy for a gang spreading misinformation to hijack the upcoming Canadian Federal Election.Fleeing from the law, Will is forced to confront his personal demons: his suppressed and abused orphan-hood, his stalled career as a historical fiction writer, the death of his first love and the chronic liar, Jaqueline, and their child he carelessly gave up for adoption. Does he have a second chance to get things right when he attends a yoga retreat and meets promiscuous painter Divine Secrets (Dee), all-knowing Guru Swaminanda, the alcoholic Davises, and sinister Professor Darlington? Is the cross-dressing porn actor with the Twitter handle @abandonedchild97, who is following him with a camera, Will's long-lost son? From an idyllic lakefront retreat to a breathtaking series of dashes between Ottawa and Toronto pursued by mobsters and police, and with a trail of dead bodies in his wake, Will assembles the pieces of the puzzle while coming to the realization that his dysfunctional past and complicated present are connected, that the Guru's words about the circular nature of life are coming true, that people and events are entering his life for a reason, and that to open his mind and heart without cloaking them in fiction or fake news is his only way towards redemption.

Sri Lankan refugee, Sam Selvadurai, fleeing the genocide in his homeland, settles in Milltown, on the northern shore of Lake Ontario; he buys an old hamburger shop and turns it into a gourmet South Asian restaurant, while the town folk eye him with suspicion . The restaurant and most of Milltown are owned by the unscrupulous but charismatic Art Hamilton whose wife committed suicide, while his troubled teenage son, Andy, languishes in a young offenders' prison on the border of town after having emptied a shotgun in the schoolyard, killing two students.Frank Morgan, the town's mayor, is on the take, pushing an amendment through council to expand the local chemical plant - for the benefit of key investor Art Hamilton. Frank lusts after his assistant, Sue Miller, whose husband died at Art's plant and who has her own plan for revenge. Sue is forlornly attracted to the town's drunken lawyer and failed politician, Rick Jones.When Sam's teenage daughter, Sarojini, and Sue's son, Billy, fall in love, and Andy bursts out of prison, the town erupts in violence and disarray. The forces of racial prejudice, parental neglect, sexual harassment, teen pregnancy, and corporate greed meet in a perfect storm in Milltown. The body count mounts, and the town's inhabitants are forced to examine their own lives before casting the first stone.As the solitary lighthouse swivels and shines its light into the nooks and crannies of Milltown, Sam asks, "Is there evil here too?""Shane Joseph is fearless in having his characters suffer within incidents that a lesser writer would balk at. Milltown is a riveting novel." Ronald Mackay - author Fortunate Isle"Milltown takes the reader on a virtual merry-go-round of crooked industrialists, abusive politicians, unwanted pregnancies, psychopathic killers, drunken lawyers, Sri Lankan immigrants and inept mobsters" Ben Antao - author Money & Politics

Greed, desire, ambition, loss, illness, death, and the driving quest to find purpose in a meaningless world.-this literary collection tempts your palate with a multitude of themes and subjects, each more daring than the last.

After a silence of twenty years, Jimmy receives an unexpected letter from his old friend and nemesis, George, inviting him on a trek along the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. Arriving in Lima, Jimmy finds the ailing George as mercurial as ever. They begin their odyssey, catching up on the intervening years, reliving periods when their lives had intersected, and revisiting the events that destroyed their relationship. Both men are haunted by the enigmatic Denise, the woman they had lured, loved and lost in Canada. Their conquest of Denise parallels the plunder of Peru by conquistadors Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro, the topic of a novel that George is writing in an attempt at self-discovery. On the Inca Trail, George and Jimmy meet trekkers Ali and Bea who exhibit the duality of Denise: beauty and introspection. They team up, even share tents. But there are many treacherous turns along the Trail before the travelers arrive in the sacred city where George is forced to confront his personal demons and Jimmy is pushed to reverse the legacy of the conquistadors. In this novel, Shane Joseph explores the hunger for conquest that drives change, the bonds of friendship that sustain faith, and the power of love that transcends evil.

Shane Joseph revisits his favourite haunt: the in-between world of the immigrant, where the past is unresolved and the present is incomplete. His characters are damaged, trying to make sense out of their lives, often having to journey back in time and place to find answers. Bandu bilks tourists for a living; Jamie loses love and home to exile; Mark meets the woman claiming to be his daughter and is forced to face the ghosts of those he betrayed; Ralph hunts down his crippled uncle to learn the art of survival; Paul becomes a best-selling author after a life-altering event as a boy in a hill country tea estate; Rohit is propelled to international fame by his arms-dealing father who manipulates him from the grave; and Ben plunges towards the supreme sacrifice by leaving New York and returning to make a contribution of conscience in his war-torn home country. The men are spurred on by powerful women in their lives-mothers, daughters, sisters, teachers, lovers and wives-women who act at motivators, detractors and inspirers. Moving between Sri Lanka and North America, these seven stories deal with the various stages of the immigrant journey. There are no happy endings, just soul-enriching ones, as each protagonist seeks his destiny while gaining valuable insights along the way.

Martin James is a true Canadian. Born overseas, he is beset by trials and tribulations while growing up. Against the odds, he escapes from his violence-wracked homeland only to find everything he holds dear in North America jeopardized as he tries to keep his personal and professional life intact. A modern-day Ulysses, Martin faces the quintessential question of the displaced, "Where do I belong?" Set in Sri Lanka and Canada, this novel brings the dilemmas faced by many immigrants into sharp focus